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Tuesday, 16 November 2010

Findus Fresher Taste

I recently picked up some vouchers for this new Findus range and thought, ‘Why not?’. I am, after all, human and don’t have time, or the inclination, to cook from scratch every night, even though it’s my downtime. So, last night, my relaxing was done in a hot bath and I opened one of the new products to see if it really was as good as a fresh meal.

The promotional text on the website assured me I’d want to ‘savour every mouthful’ of the Tender Chicken Breast with Vintage Cheddar and Bacon sauce – so did I? The chicken was moist, not dry after the recommended cooking time, and the sauce was tasty, but looked nothing like the think, oozing sauce on the picture: It was much, much runnier. The ‘buttery seasonal vegetables, which count as two of your five a day’ sort of made up for it as I rarely get my 5 a day, even on a good day!

The OH’s piece of ‘Flaky Cod Fillet’ was a remarkably small piece, and all I can say is that they must use side plates in the pictures on the website! His 1 of the 5 a day packet contained ‘a medley of crisp vegetables (which) completes this beautifully balanced dish’. There was a small piece of butter in with the vegetables to keep them moist and it did it’s trick, but unfortunately, this also meant the potato pieces were soft rather than crispy: you could always remove them from the pack for the last five minutes to crispen up in the oven, but that does of take the convenience aspect out of the equation.

Does it do ‘what it says on the tin’? Is it actually a fresher taste? My first question was exactly what I was supposed to be comparing the fresher taste with. If we’re talking about whether it tasted as if it was fresh produce rather than frozen, then yes, it most definitely did. The meat / fish was always cooked to perfection, never overcooked or dry, and the vegetables just past biting point. The only thing that gave it way was the slightly watery sauce. For taste alone, the flavours were strong and you could easily swap the vegetable packets over to put the greens with the fish and the potato and root vegetables with the meats, which I feel would work better. The addition of peppers to a white fish with a cream mornay sauce also seemed a bit of a strange combination, but maybe that’s just me?

As mentioned, I used vouchers to purchase my packets, but out of interest, wonder what you’d pay for this as a ‘ready-meal’ alternative? You get a small piece of meat or fish, a sauce, and a packet of vegetables that counts as one or two of your 5 a day. Very easy to prepare, either in the microwave or in the oven, you simply put two short cuts into the top of each ‘bag’, and they’re ready from anywhere between 7 (ish) and 25 minutes.

So have a think…my OH decided he’d pay up to £2.50, but then never does the shopping so doesn’t know the price of things! I’ll put the answer after the tags on this post to give you time…

£3.99 a pack. From a personal viewpoint I’d never pay this when you could make it from fresh ingredients for less, but it did take the phaff out of cooking one night from five, and tasted nearly as good!

(I have amended this blog after double-checking my facts and realising that the packs are on sale at £3.99, not £4.99 as I currently stated. I apologise for that: my memory obviously cannot be relied upon!)

2 comments:

Interesting to read your comments on these, I turned down the offer as its not something I'd normally buy or interested in, though I did look at them in the freezer section the other day and did a double take when I saw the price, I'm surprised anyone would buy them at full price?!

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